Israel Chemicals Completes Potash Supply Agreements With China

Jan. 17 (Bloomberg) -- Israel Chemicals Ltd. will supply
660,000 metric tons of potash to China in the first half of this
year as the company that extracts minerals from the Dead Sea to
make fertilizer seeks to expand sales to Asia.

The sales are part of a contract to supply 3.3 million tons
of potash to Chinese buyers in the next three years, according
to a company statement to the Tel-Aviv Stock Exchange today.
The shares added 0.3 percent to 47.50 shekels at the close in
Tel Aviv.

The contracts “demonstrate our successful strategy aimed
at reinforcing and deepening our positioning in the Chinese
market,” Dani Chen, chief executive office of ICL Fertilizers,
said in an e-mailed statement. Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan
Inc., Mosaic Co. and Agrium Inc. this month agreed to sell 1
million tons of the crop nutrient to China’s Sinofert Holdings
Ltd. at a price that’s $70 a ton below a March agreement.

The sales come as the proposed acquisition of Israel
Chemicals by Canada’s Potash Corp. is on hold until after next
week’s election, Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz said Jan. 9.
Polls show the opposition Labor party may get the second-largest
share of Knesset seats behind Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu’s Likud-Beitenu slate.

“Bringing left-leaning parties into the coalition would
make the acquisition less likely,” Daniel Goldstein, global
head of sales at Tel Aviv-based IBI-Israel Brokerage &
Investments, told Guy Johnson in an interview on Bloomberg
Television today. “The government could decide to hold and
increase the asset value,” he said.